Curses, Foiled Again
Police arrested Ashton Powers, 24, in Tempe, Ariz., for slashing a tire on a police car with the officer in it. “I don’t know what this guy was thinking,” police Sgt. Michael Pooley said. “It’s a fully marked car, the car was running, the officer was inside with the air conditioning on and you could hear the car running. It still didn’t stop him.” Powers admitted slashing the tire but said he didn’t notice anyone inside. (Phoenix’s KNXV-TV)
The New Christmas Story
For the annual “Living Nativity” scene, Baptist Temple Church in Fall River, Mass., replaced one of the three Wise Men from the biblical narrative with Santa Claus bowing before Jesus in the manger. “The true message of Christmas is about Jesus’ birth,” explained Shirley Johnson, whose husband is the church’s pastor. “And you know what Christmas has become for many: It’s about Santa and the gifts. That’s why we’re showing Santa bowing the knee to baby Jesus.” (Fall River’s The Herald News)
Lest We Forget
After movie star Paul Walker died in a car crash, Scottish authorities reported that a car burst into flames during a gathering to honor Walker organized by a group of car enthusiasts. Police charged a 19-year-old man with causing the fire, which began “after revving the engine for 20 minutes in tribute.” (Scotland’s STV)
Out on a High Note
After becoming the oldest woman to compete in the New York marathon, Joy Johnson, 86, returned to her hotel, lay down to rest and never woke up. (Agence France-Presse)
Better Late Than Never
After calling a speech by the president “silly remarks” deserving “a veil of oblivion,” The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., apologized in a Nov. 14 editorial for failing “to recognize its momentous importance, timeless eloquence and lasting significance.” The original judgment, by the paper’s predecessor, The Patriot & Union, referred to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. (The Patriot-News)
Fact or Fiction?
Costco apologized for selling Bibles in the fiction section of its store in Simi Valley, Calif., after church pastor Caleb Kaltenbach noticed them there while shopping. Two weeks later, newspaper columnist Robin Abcarian was shopping at another Costco near Los Angeles and spotted movie character Ron Burgundy’s “autobiography” in the non-fiction section. (Los Angeles Times)
Double Jeopardy
Ye Mengyuan, 16, a passenger aboard the Asiana Airline flight that crash landed in San Francisco in July survived the crash and was thrown from the plane but died when she was run over by a rescue vehicle responding to the emergency, according to San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault. (CNN)
Respect Your Elders–Or Else
Chinese legislators amended a law to require people to visit or keep in touch with their elderly parents or risk being sued. “It is mainly to stress the right of elderly people to ask for emotional support,” Xiao Jinming, a law professor at Shandong University who helped draft the measure, explained. “We want to emphasize there is such a need.” (Associated Press)
Droning On
- Amazon.com founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, 49, unveiled a working prototype of a drone that he predicted would pave the way for using drones to deliver packages in as little as 30 minutes. The unmanned aerial vehicle uses a claw to scoop up packages at Amazon fulfillment centers and transport them to customers. Appearing on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Bezos said the technology could be fully implemented within five years. (The Washington Post)
- In the latest backlash against unmanned aerial vehicles, town officials in Deer Trail, Colo., are considering a proposed ordinance that would grant hunting permits allowing residents to shoot down drones. The permits would cost $25, and anyone who presents evidence of shooting down a drone would receive $100. “This is a pre-emptive strike,” said Phillip Steel, 48, who proposed the measure and collected enough signatures on a petition to require local officials to act on it. “I don’t want to live in a surveillance society.” The Federal Aviation Administration responded that people who fire guns at drones could be prosecuted or fined, but Steel insisted, “The FAA doesn’t have the power to make a law.” (Associated Press)
- Detectives investigating the death of an inmate at Florida’s Pinellas County jail concluded that the victim’s cellmate, Scott Alexander Greenberg, 28, had murdered the 48-year-old man by shoving wet toilet paper down his throat. (South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel)
- Pizza was the weapon of choice in two incidents. Cody Sebastian Parsons, 25, denied assaulting his 19-year-old girlfriend with pizza at their home in Wilkesboro, N.C., but police found “pizza sauce on the back of {the victim’s} right rib cage,” and “there were pieces of pizza all over the living room floor, as well as on the wall behind the front entrance door to the apartment.” In Fort Mill, S.C., police arrested Jimmy Ray Poage, 47, for assaulting his 40-year-old girlfriend with a pizza slice. Poage claimed the woman threw pizza at him first, but, according to a York County Sheriff’s report, her clothing was splattered with sauce, whereas his were “clear of pizza or pizza sauce.” (The Smoking Gun)
- Police said the driver of a Ford Taurus that crashed into a sport utility vehicle in Crestwood, Ill., killing front-seat passenger Linda Shattuck, lost control of the vehicle after a cell phone charging cord became entangled with the steering wheel. (Chicago Sun-Times)
- Tracy Arnold, 40, and Michael Arnold, 36, died when her dirt bike and his all-terrain vehicle collided nearly head-on on a two-lane road near their home in Hernando County, Fla., throwing them from their vehicles. The husband and wife were apparently unaware of each other when they crashed, according to Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Gaskins, who noted that neither was wearing a helmet. (Tampa Bay Times)
